Generally, network system management software tools provide the capability of managing a system of multiple networked devices (“managed devices”). In some system management architectures, a user, such as a system administrator, accesses an agent executing on any of a number of respective managed devices through a central management server. Hence, the user manages the managed devices via the management server. The management server typically communicates with an agent on behalf of the user working from a remote client. The agents that execute on managed devices perform management operations based on commands from the server and provide detailed information to the server about respective managed devices.
The management server provides not only a path through which an administrator can monitor and manage a given managed device, but may also provide a set of management services which can execute on one or more server machines to perform a set of enterprise management functionalities across a set of machines. Such management services may require different access permissions and different runtime environments. A “server context” is a set of services that is executing on a given server machine and is associated with one or more “server ranges,” where each server range is a set of agents executing on respective managed devices that are managed based on the same server context.
When new system management requirements arise, one or more new management services may need to be added to the management system. In some scenarios, a new management service is expected to be able to use and/or interact with other management services in the system, while in other scenarios, the new management service may be expected to be isolated from other management services in the system. The current approach to deployment and management of network system management services has room for improvement.